Wildfire Danger Remains Constant in the State

Because Nebraska is still experiencing drought conditions, the danger of wildfires remains constant.

Ray Nance, Deputy Fire Marshal, says the risk of fire depends on a number of factors, including the level of humidity in the air as well as the wind speed.

And that danger could be higher or lower on any given day. Nance discusses some of the common causes of wildfires.

"People going out and burning things when they should be calling their fire department and obtaining burn permits and maybe not burning because it is so dry out there. Other causes include people throwing cigarettes out of vehicle windows and equipment overheating and throwing off sparks, maybe people using a cutting torch out there or grinding or exhaust systems.”

Nance says the number of wildfires hasn’t increased lately.

But he says there have been fires that have been more widely noticed because of dry conditions, strong winds and the number of acres that were burned.